Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)

God that snaking synth line from 1:04 onwards in "Cold Earth" is ruling my headphones today.

Cheers for that Don Paterson poem upthread, dog latin. "Movement of hour hand perceptible." is a terrifying concept. When he is on form I find his work connects with me with an emotional directness that few others manage. I love these lines from "The Circle":

But Jamie, nothing’s what we meant.

The dream is taxed. We all resent

the quarter bled off by the dark

between the bowstring and the mark

lol at the happy clappy horror aroused by nilmar's perfectly reasonable enquiry

they are recognizably themselves but doing something quite new and distinctive

ya but as tlg says isnt the whole point of contention that it's only n&d for them in isolation. or are you arguing they take the angle further?

it's a bit more generic idm than their old records but given how little people take the form seriously anymore it's still quite welcome to me

― ciderpress, Thursday, 23 May 2013 20:21 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

i think this heartstring-tugging post is the only bit i've read about this album that has given me pause in dismissing it

anyway, sorry to highlight geeta's awesome review and then provoke the inevitable reflexive ilx asshole response

people would "comment freely" (to say the least) on any review if it was by someone who doesn't post here, we don't have to police our own yay ilx society, it's already mostly insufferable "otm" circle jerks anyway.

^^^this guy fucking knows

yes speaking of mostly insuf... oh god i can't be bothered to tap this zing in

that's the kind of zany colloquialism I wish this site held more of :)

I thought it was a little one-trick and shallow at first. But I have listened a lot and am changing my mind quite quickly. And I remembered a time when I used to listen to all my records until they changed in this way. Fun to do it again.

i recently got into them and have everything available on cd and just ordered this one so we will see.

: |

reacharound for the dead

"We are emailing to advise that your MP3 version of 'Tomorrow's Harvest' has been upgraded to a lossless version. You can now log in and download your choice of 16-bit WAV or 16-bit FLAC from the Music section of your account."

^^ fascinating stuff

was thinking this is kind of spotty, but keep listening to 9-10 tracks of the 17, endlessly. "come to dust" recalls amber -era autechre for me. "teartear" in particular.

I'd say it's their most 'of a piece' album - I think of it as one long listen than anything to do with separate tracks.

that's fair, possibly also a nice way of saying the songs have less individual personality than they used to

it's definitely the "BoC album most likely to be forgotten about while playing" (not a value judgment, i like ambient music)

I'm listening to it now and I forgot I was listening to it. Definitely a mood piece and any descriptions of 'dark apocalyptic documentary music' are completely accurate. There are no '1969's or 'Aquarius's or 'ROYGBIV's on here - it's a sustained feeling through and through as far as I'm concerned, albeit with moments I really enjoy. Love especially the lapsed robot voice on Telepath, for example.

this has been listed as "shipping now" to me from amazon since monday wtf

Amazon

"sick times" is essentially "hi scores pt. 2"

Finally realized what "Cold Earth" reminds me of- more than classic BOC, all the little pings and boings and one-off sounds make me think of Moon Wiring Club, especially the Ghost Box 7" with the Advisory Circle.

I'm picking up a big Ghost Box vibe on some of the tracks - the third song "White Cyclosa" owes a bit of a debt to "Nuclear Substation PIF" by The Advisory Circle.

fair do's really cos it's pretty hard to imagine ghost box existing without BOC

i think it would have been impossible to do "tomorrow's harvest" as a foreboding 70s bbc-style synth soundtrack and not have drawn comparisons to ghost box, they've got that territory pretty firmly staked out

cf the cover connections i posted upthread

http://de-bug.de/musik/10677.html

Another interview, quite interesting imo

We’re not literally talking about plants when we use the term “seeds”, so you have to think sideways about the song titles.

:-(

torrenting

Why does sick times peter-the-FUCK-OUT so goddamn early. ?

You’ve just returned from the future, bringing in the harvest. You know what we don’t know: What will we be feeding on from tomorrow onwards?

Marcus: Breakfast, hopefully.

Are you following what is written online about you, especially in these fan forums? The people there are mad for you. In that regard, you’re one of the world’s biggest pop groups.

Um, no.

this has been listed as "shipping now" to me from amazon since monday wtf

Finally got this a couple days ago (though they managed to fuck up and ship "50 Greatest Hymns" with it instead of the Twinight Soul comp I ordered. fuckers). I refrained from listening to more than a few seconds of any of the leaks but album is exactly what I expected. I dig the early 80s horror vibe and it's really consistent and moody...but I miss the tunefulness and playfulness of the 1st album. None of the tracks stand out, either as significantly better than the rest or significantly different (ie in tone, texture, mood, tempo etc). It all fits together really nicely as an Album, but I'd love to hear stuff they've made lately that they didn't put on it because it wouldn't fit in here. So far, feels like Geogaddi Pt 2 except with higher lowpoints and lower highpoints.

1st listen was while driving over a mountain in the high desert, kinda cool. though feels more like a desert floor type album.

I've never exactly been a starry-eyed devotee but I liked Geogaddi and I really like this. Listened to it on a train back from Scotland and we went past a nuclear power station, really felt the eco-dread at that point.

Coming round to this now ... had to shake off a feeling of "come on, impress me" ... which was really just excitement.

http://boardsofcanada.com/vinyl-reissues/

For the first time in over five years, the Boards of Canada catalogue will be reissued on vinyl.

October 21st
'Music Has the Right to Children' 1998
'Geogaddi' 2002
'The Campfire Headphase' 2006

November 18th
'Twoism' 1995
'In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country' 2000
'Trans Canada Highway' 2006

Pre-orders of reissue products from Bleep.com will receive a 12"x12" Boards of Canada print (one per whole order) and MP3 versions for immediate download. There are also a special discounts available for customers who pre-ordered 'Tomorrow's Harvest' from Bleep.com.

Look out for a Skam reissue of the 'Hi Scores' EP later this year.

Per-ordered a couple of these today. Well done by Warp w/the discounts as well.

re: Tomorrow's Harvest. It has taken awhile but I have really come around to this. Also, I think it sounds much better on vinyl.

Last night a pirate shortwave radio station calling itself BOCHF showed up on 6,925 kHz, played all of Tomorrow's Harvest - signing off with some morse code and a SSTV image. Doesn't appear to be affiliated with the band at all (the broadcaster eventually posted on the Twoism board), but I like the continued mysteriousness.

More info and a recording here:
http://swling.com/blog/2013/08/pirate-radio-recordings-bochf-radio-boards-of-canada-hf/
http://hfunderground.com/blog/?p=105

found this almost absurdly boring, sorry

the leaked track (new seeds) gave me high hopes but turned out to be by far the best thing on the album

something 2 chill 2 dawg

gave it 3 or 4 full listens on a recent European car trip - probably the wrong context for it but I was listening closely & absorbing

I really like their first 3 albums, to clarify

if you want to say that something is overrated pretentious rubbish then the correct phraseology is 'i'm sorry but......'

if you just want to say you don't like something then never apologize

this is a very impressive album but it doesn't really embed itself in the subconscious like the first two and i seldom feel like i want to go back to it

i don't think it's pretentious. i simply found it boring. it's got a far more ambient remit than its predecessors, which i feel doesn't do their ideas as much justice

Yeah, I quite liked it, but haven't not returned to it once.

Oops, I meant haven't returned to it.

there's no need to apologize for finding something boring

although clearly if someone finds mozart boring and thinks that other people need to know how boring mozart is then certain inferences may be drawn

this isn't mozart though, more's the pity